Soviet leaders and the policies of the USSR
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Question
What made the USSR a Cold War superpower?
Answer
A large command economy, a massive nuclear arsenal, and leadership of the Eastern bloc (Warsaw Pact).
Question
Define 'command economy'.
Answer
An economy where the state, not the market, decides what is produced and owns industry.
Question
Why did Soviet leaders want an Eastern European buffer zone?
Answer
For security — a ring of friendly communist states to protect the USSR from invasion after the trauma of WWII.
Question
What was the Berlin Blockade (1948–49)?
Answer
Stalin cut off land routes to West Berlin to force the West out; it was defeated by the Berlin Airlift — a key Cold War origin.
Question
What were Khrushchev's two 'softer' policies?
Answer
'Peaceful coexistence' with the West and de-Stalinization (criticising Stalin's crimes).
Question
Which crises show Khrushchev's harder side?
Answer
Crushing the Hungarian Uprising (1956), the Berlin Crisis and Wall (1961), and the Cuban Missile Crisis (1962).
Question
Define the Brezhnev Doctrine.
Answer
'Limited sovereignty' — the USSR's claimed right to intervene by force in any socialist state straying from communism.
Question
What do glasnost and perestroika mean?
Answer
Glasnost = openness; perestroika = restructuring — Gorbachev's reforms to save the failing Soviet system.
Question
What was Gorbachev's 'New Thinking'?
Answer
A foreign policy of cooperation with the West that abandoned using force to hold the bloc, easing military costs.
Question
How did domestic pressure change Soviet foreign policy under Gorbachev?
Answer
A stagnant economy and the costs of the arms race, the bloc and Afghanistan forced retreat: arms deals, dropping the Brezhnev Doctrine, and leaving Afghanistan.
Question
Why did the Eastern bloc collapse in 1989?
Answer
Gorbachev abandoned the Brezhnev Doctrine and refused to send tanks, so unsupported communist governments fell.
Question
Compare Stalin's and Gorbachev's approach to the bloc.
Answer
Stalin built and forcibly held the buffer zone; Gorbachev, facing economic collapse, chose to release it and end the Cold War.
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Leaders and nations
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